From Boss to Bridegroom

by Victoria Pade

  And with that she hung up the phone, letting a smile play across her face as she allowed herself to believe she was out of the woods, that she no longer needed to worry about her sister cropping up to ruin things for her.

  Which meant that now she could concentrate on the more pressing matter of that vile Emily….

  Lucy didn’t get Max home until noon on Monday. The recuperative powers of the child were amazing and by then he was bright and alert and, with the exception of the cast on his arm, showing almost no signs of the previous day’s trauma.

  Lucy, on the other hand, felt as if she’d been through the wringer. And it didn’t help matters when she discovered on her coffee table a large wrapped package from Rand to Max.

  Sadie came out from the kitchen at about the same time and said, “That arrived about an hour ago.”

  Once he’d determined it was for him, Max tore in to the wrapping and exclaimed delightedly over the treasure trove of dinosaur movies, picture books and coloring books and crayons.

  “Did you see this?” he enthused to his mother and great-aunt. “Did you see what Rand got me? How come he did that?”

  It was clear the present meant all the more to Max because it had come from his hero. A stab of pain went through Lucy to think that her son was already so attached to the man that he would miss him when Rand didn’t come around anymore.

  But she fought it and said as evenly as she could, “It’s a get-well gift. When people are sick or have accidents and get hurt, other people send them presents.”

  “Cool!” the little boy said, his newest word since becoming friends with Mikey, the boy he’d been spending the night with when he’d decided to dive off the high bunk. “Can we call Rand and tell him to come over and play?”

  The stabbing pain just got worse for Lucy. “No, we can’t do that. I’m sure he’s working.”

  “Then can we call him to come over tonight when he’s not working?”

  “I don’t think we’ll be seeing any more of Rand for a while, Max. But you can send him a thank-you picture, maybe one of the dinosaurs you color in the coloring books.”

  “But I want to see him myself and tell him thank you,” the little boy insisted. “Why won’t we see any more of him for a while? Is he going away on a trip or something?”

  “Something,” Lucy confirmed, distracting her son by pointing out that the plastic dinosaurs had come complete with their own rain forest for him to set up.

  But Sadie was not so easily thrown off the track and once Max was occupied with his new toys she said, “Come into the kitchen with me, Lucy, and see if I made Max’s Jell-O the way he likes it.”

  Since Max liked his Jell-O plain, Lucy knew it was a ploy but she had no choice, so she followed her aunt into the kitchen.

  “What’s going on?” Sadie asked without preamble.

  “Right now I’d just like to take a shower and a nap,” Lucy answered, pretending she didn’t know what her aunt was referring to.

  But Sadie would have none of that. “I don’t mean what’s going on here and now. I mean what’s going on with you and Rand. Don’t think I didn’t notice at the hospital yesterday that Rand was dressed in the same clothes he picked you up in Saturday night—yes, I saw him, he was arriving just as I was leaving. And you said yourself that the two of you rushed to the hospital at six-thirty Sunday morning. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out he spent the night. Which, by the way, I approve of since Max was out of the house. But then last night in the corridor outside Max’s hospital room I could tell nothing good was going on. Now you tell Max that Rand won’t be coming around anymore. Something happened and I want to know what it is.”

  Sadie had always been the person Lucy confided in, even as a child. It was only natural for her to do that now despite some reluctance to rehash what she would rather have been able to put behind her. So she told her aunt the entire story, beginning to end, and waited for Sadie to lend the unfailing support she had in the past.

  But that wasn’t what Sadie did.

  “You’re wrong, Lucy,” she said instead. “You’re so wrong.”

  “About what?” Lucy asked, surprised, defensive, confused.

  “About Rand. You’re right that he lives a different life than you do. You’re right that he’s put off having a family because it would interfere with that life. You’re even right that he lives in a place that looks more like a modern art museum than a house and that Max would level it in a week. But Rand is a man who knows himself. He’s a man who says what he means and means what he says. And if he says he’s ready to cut back on work, to have a family, ready to put that family first, that’s exactly what he’s ready to do.”

  “He’ll regret it,” Lucy contended, repeating part of the reasoning she’d already given her aunt.

  “He doesn’t make decisions he regrets. And he also doesn’t bail out of things because he can’t handle change. You may be talking about Rand but I think it’s Marshall you have in mind.”

  “That’s what Rand said. But they’re very much alike.”

  “Maybe on the surface. But while Marshall liked a life that didn’t accommodate having kids and wasn’t willing to change, if Rand says he’s willing to change to accommodate having a family, he is. Only you’re not giving him the chance because you’re projecting too much of your past onto the present. Onto him.”

  “He didn’t even want a secretary with a child,” Lucy reminded her aunt.

  “And he probably still won’t. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to come home to a woman with a child. Or to that child.” Sadie paused a moment as if to let that sink in and then said, “I know things have been hard for you since you got pregnant with Max, darling. I know you’ve made a lot of sacrifices for him. But I honestly don’t think Rand is one of the things you have to give up for Max’s sake. Or for any other reason. I think with Rand you can finally let down your guard and have what you want—and you do want him or I need my eyes checked. With Rand you can have what you deserve. What Max deserves. Trust me, Lucy. Trust Rand. You can, you know.”

  Trust Rand…

  That was just what he’d asked her to do the night before. And she’d done it. Without regret.

  But could she do it again, in the larger scheme of things?

  Sadie left Lucy alone in the kitchen then, returning to Max with a bowl of the Jell-O she’d made him. Lucy didn’t follow. Instead she crossed the kitchen to the window above the sink and looked out at the courtyard all four of her aunt’s town houses shared.

  But it wasn’t the autumn-bare gardens or the tall cherry trees she saw out there. Her focus was all internal, all on what Sadie had said, all on thoughts of Rand.

  It wasn’t easy to shake the sense of how similar Rand and Marshall were on the surface. They were both well-respected, feared, high-powered movers and shakers in their own professions. They were both workaholics. They had both reached a point where concessions were made to them rather than them making concessions to anyone else.

  Except that maybe that last part wasn’t entirely true of Rand, she admitted to herself a little belatedly, feeling guilty for assigning something to him that might not be strictly true.

  Yes, she’d done more adapting to him and his needs during the week she’d worked for him but he’d done some adjusting himself—working at her place, having Max to his, suspending work time while Max was with them so she could be with her son and see to his needs.

  No, they hadn’t been big alterations but they had spoken of more flexibility than Marshall would have ever shown.

  And maybe there was another difference between Marshall and Rand, too, she realized as she thought about it. Rand wasn’t a selfish man, the way Marshall had been. Rand had been perfectly willing to share her with Max, which was something Marshall had told her point-blank he would never be willing to do. He’d said he had to be the center of the universe for whatever woman he was involved with and a child would only corrupt that. But Rand hadn’t had any proble
ms in that area. In fact he’d joined in when it came to Max. In some ways he’d taken over. It was part of why her son was so enamoured of him.

  And Rand did know what being a part of a family entailed, she couldn’t deny that. Not only had he come from a large one but he was so clear about the role a father needed to play in a family that he’d denied himself parenthood rather than come up short the way he’d felt his own father had at one time.

  But on Sunday at the hospital he’d done just what a good father, a good husband, would have done, she had to admit. He’d suspended his own concerns to care for her and for Max. He couldn’t have been more selfless, more compassionate, more caring, more helpful, even though they’d come from the discussion they’d had and the rejection she’d dished out.

  So Rand had certainly proved that he could be there for her and Max when she needed him, which was definitely different from Marshall.

  But could Rand make such a huge change in his lifestyle on a permanent basis?

  She didn’t know for sure.

  But then, how could anyone know for sure?

  Which was where the trust part of her aunt’s lecture came in.

  If she was going to allow Rand into her life, into Max’s life, she would have to trust that he did know himself and what he wanted and what he was ready for.

  And what he’d said he wanted was her. And Max.

  That he’d said he was ready for was a family.

  When she came down to that, a bubble of elation sprang to life inside her.

  Rand wanted her…

  Rand wanted Max…

  Should she take the risk for them both?

  She wanted to. More than she’d ever wanted anything.

  She wanted Rand, and a family with him. She wanted Max to have him as his father.

  If that had been what Rand had been proposing the morning before…

  It occurred to Lucy that she wasn’t exactly sure what Rand had been proposing. Suddenly that bubble of elation inside her lost some of its air.

  What if he had only been proposing that they have some sort of other, uncommitted relationship?

  That could put a whole new spin on things. A whole new spin that would put herself and Max more at risk than she was willing to.

  But she’d never know unless she talked to Rand.

  So talk to him.

  She didn’t want to do it over the phone and she couldn’t leave Max right then, when she’d just gotten him home from the hospital.

  “But there’s still tonight,” she whispered to herself.

  Once she got Max to sleep, she could have Sadie baby-sit while she went to Rand’s apartment.

  Tension washed through her.

  What if she’d misunderstood what he’d been leading up to the previous morning before she’d stopped him? What if she went there tonight and made a huge fool out of herself?

  There was only one way to find out. So tonight she’d talk to him, she vowed.

  If she could keep her courage up that long.

  The doorman for Rand’s apartment building recognized Lucy when she arrived at nine that evening but he wouldn’t allow her to go up until first calling ahead.

  That didn’t help her nerves as she stood in the lobby waiting and imagining that Rand had another woman with him and had left orders with his doorman not to be disturbed.

  Within moments she got the okay but the anxiety remained with her on the elevator. She hadn’t only rejected Rand once yesterday, she’d rejected him twice. And now she couldn’t help worrying that, even if he had intended something permanent, maybe after twenty-four hours of thinking about it, he’d gotten angry and would tell her to take a hike.

  But she’d come this far and she wasn’t going home without knowing exactly what he’d been suggesting the day before, even if her heart was in her throat and her knees felt as if they were made of jelly.

  When the elevator doors opened on the eighth floor, Rand was standing in his open doorway, which cut short the idea of retreating back to the lobby, so she willed her legs to hold her up and stepped off the elevator.

  “Is everything all right? Is Max okay?” Rand asked in greeting, clearly concerned that something bad had happened to bring her here.

  “Everything is fine. Max is doing amazingly well,” Lucy assured quietly, wanting to allay any worry as she crossed the outside hallway. She appreciated that he cared enough for that to be his first concern, though. It bolstered her decision to do what she was there to do.

  From her pocket she took out a page torn from one of her son’s new coloring books and handed it to Rand. Max had colored the picture and had her show him how to write thank you and his name at the top.

  “Max wanted you to have this,” she said. “He was about as excited as I’ve ever seen him to get home and find that gift from you. You’ve done enough. You didn’t have to do that, too.”

  “I wanted to. But you didn’t need to hand-deliver his thank-you. Especially not tonight.”

  Rand’s expression was inscrutable and it didn’t make this any easier for her, particularly since he hadn’t so much as invited her into his apartment. Again she worried that he might have female company. Female company who might have been helping him off with his clothes because he was down to just navy blue suit pants and an untucked, unbuttoned shirt that exposed a mind-numbingly sexy strip of chest and belly.

  But again she summoned her courage to go headlong into her purpose for being there.

  “I didn’t just come to bring Max’s picture. I wanted to talk to you,” she finally admitted. “But if you aren’t alone…”

  “I’m alone,” he said with an edge to his voice that let her know he was reading her thoughts and didn’t appreciate the implication.

  He stepped out of the doorway then, though, and made a sweeping gesture with his arm to indicate invitation.

  Lucy went in, swallowing hard along the way and praying she was brave enough to go through with this as they stood facing each other in the entryway.

  “Did you get a temp in today to work?” she asked, curious and trying to ease some of her own stress with small talk when he seemed inclined to have them remain in the foyer.

  “The service sent over a pretty good one, actually. Sheila. She’ll be back tomorrow and I may offer her the job.”

  “Young? Beautiful?” Lucy didn’t know where that had come from and she wished she could call the words back the moment they were out.

  “She’s about fifty, slightly plump, not attractive at all. But she’s a great secretary.”

  “Good,” Lucy said in a voice she barely recognized as her own.

  Rand must have taken it to mean that she wasn’t happy to have been replaced because he said, “I didn’t think you’d be back. Between Max and—”

  “No, it’s good you found someone else. You’re right, Max needs me at home.”

  Silence fell then as Lucy’s courage flagged.

  But after a moment Rand said, “Now tell me why you’re really here.”

  There was no hostility in his tone. In fact there was a conservative sort of compassion that helped her to face him and say, “Sadie says I was wrong, and after thinking about it I’ve come to agree with her.”

  “What are you wrong about?”

  “You.” She took a deep breath and pushed herself to go on. “I’m sorry, Rand. It’s just that Sunday morning when you started to talk about changing your life, I panicked. I had you all mixed up in my mind with Max’s father and… Well, I was just wrong. I know that if you say you want to change your life you do. That you will. That you won’t regret it. That you’ll accomplish that as well as you’ve accomplished everything else.”

  “This sounds like an endorsement from an objective third party apologizing for not giving credit where credit is due. But is the punch line that you still don’t want any part of it?”

  “I don’t know. That depends on what part of it you had in mind for me. I didn’t let you get far enough to find out.”
>
  “I was casting you as the leading lady.”

  “What role exactly does the leading lady play?

  Steady girlfriend? Significant other?”

  “You’re still thinking of me as that other guy, Lucy. I’m talking about you being my wife.”

  Relief washed over her and she smiled for the first time since her arrival. “Oh.”

  “That’s all you have to say? Oh?”

  “Is the offer still good?”

  He took her hand in both of his and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe she was asking that question. “If you’ll recall, I told you to think about it. So yes, the offer is still good. I’m in love with you, Lucy Lowry. I don’t know how you could have missed it, but since you did—”

  “A girl just likes to hear the words.”

  “Okay. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you so much that nothing is as important to me as being with you, as making you my wife, as making my life with you, as being a father to Max. I’d like it if you’d agree to marry me. And if you do, I promise you that I will never hurt you intentionally, and that I will always put you and Max and any other kids we might have first and foremost.”

  “And you’re sure?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure. I’m positive. I’m absolutely certain. So what do you say?”

  She didn’t have to think about it. She said, “Yes. I say yes.”

  He stared down at her for a moment and she honestly thought he was going to pull her into his arms and kiss her. But instead he said, “I have one condition.”

  “You do?”

  “I want you to let me be the breadwinner so you can go back to law school. You don’t have to take a full load, just a few classes a semester while Max is in school. But I want you to go. I don’t want to see that mind of yours wasted. And then, once you pass the bar, we can be partners in that, too.”

  Lucy laughed. If she’d had any lingering doubts about how different Rand was from Marshall, they disappeared in that instant because there wasn’t a hint of the resentment for her ambitions that Marshall had always shown.

  “I think you’re just looking for a way to lighten your caseload,” she joked.